Setting up a fishing industry including boatbuilding, fish curing and coopering

Harbours and industrial developments along the coast

Land improvements - introduction of the Cheviot sheep and black faced sheep

He has been criticised for:

The inhuman eviction of thousands of people from their homes to achieve the land improvements,
the Highland Clearances

Depopulating the glens and straths of Sutherland to make sheepwalks

Movement of people to coastal areas to work in the new industries

Not keeping close enough control over what was happening in Sutherland in his and his wife's name

Elizabeth Sutherland inherited her father's Earldom following the celebrated Sutherland Peerage Case
which established the validity of the unusual practice of this Earldom being able to pass through
the female, as well as the male, line. She was an artist, and her work is represented in the
Tate collection.

William was MP (Tory) for St Germans 1791-1802, Secretary to Legation at Berlin, Nov 1791-1793, Secretary of
Embassy and Minister Plenipotentiary at The Hague 1793-1794, Minister Plenipotentiary to the Elector Palatine
and to the Diet of Ratisbon 1796, Lord of the Admiralty 1800-1804, MP (Tory) for Liskeard 1802-1823, Under-Secretary
for Foreign Affairs 1804-1805, Lord of the Treasury 1807-1812. Succeeded to the peerage as 2nd Earl of St Germans, 17 Nov 1823.

George Waldegrave, 4th Earl Waldegrave
(son of William Waldegrave and Elizabeth Leveson-Gower),
born 23 Nov 1751,
married 5 May 1782, Elizabeth Waldegrave, born 25 Mar 1760
(daughter of James Waldegrave and Maria Walpole), who died 29 Jan 1816, Strawberry Hill, Surrey.
George died 22 Oct 1789.

Children:

i

George Waldegrave 5th Earl Waldegrave, born 13 Jun 1784, died 29 Jun 1794.
Accidently drowned while bathing in the Thames.

John Leveson-Gower
(son of John Leveson-Gower and Frances Boscawen),
born 25 Jun 1774, Army Officer, married 27 Dec 1796, Isabella Mary Broke,
(daughter of Philip Bowes Broke) who died 28 May 1817. John died Sept 1816.

William Leveson-Gower
(son of John Leveson-Gower and Frances Boscawen),
born 6 Aug 1779, married 20 Aug 1804, Katherine Maria Gresham (daughter of John Gresham),
who died 7 Oct 1808. William died 3 Oct 1851.